


a simple lesson

by caesarions



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Other, Pieces of Eden, Post-Endgame, Sibling Bonding, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 21:39:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16626896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caesarions/pseuds/caesarions
Summary: Deimos assumed that the Cult had taught him everything, but a wider world awaits. Some lessons must even be relearned, in not-so-simple manners.





	a simple lesson

"I killed the Minotaur, you know," Kassandra said once only sapphire seas surrounded them.

Alexios stopped whittling to glance up. He had plucked the dagger long ago from a dead man—perhaps dead from his own hand in his past life. He had just picked the driftwood from the shores of Lakonia before they had departed. Exactly why, no one knew, not even Alexios. But as he whittled the blanched wood away into a point, no one was brave enough to take it away from him, for fear of divine retribution. “You lie.”

“You’re right,” Kassandra grinned like a sunbathing cat before looking up. Ikaros circled high in Zeus' skies; Alexios thought it looked like Ikaros circling his prey, but Kassandra insisted he was just looking out for them.

Alexios jumped to his feet in triumph, the ancient boards squeaking in protest. At the helm, Barnabas glanced their way nervously. “Ha! I knew it!”

“I actually killed two Minotaurs,” Kassandra corrected herself. “Is that even the plural form?”

Exasperated, Alexios leaned against the ship’s wall. “ _Málaka_. Don’t mess with me.”

“I’m not.” Setting her armor and cleaning supplies aside, Kassandra leaned forward. “The first one was fake. It was just a tourist scam on Pephka. All I won was that stupid bull mask, and that was more than most.”

“That, I can believe,” Alexios huffed, the closest he ever knew to a laugh.

Kassandra raised her finger. “But trust me, the second Minotaur was real.”

Groaning, Alexios threw down his dagger to stick in the wooden floor and stomped away, still gripping his stick.

“Don’t hurt her!” Barnabas wanted.

Kassandra hauled herself up with a groan. The lull in adventure after saving Deimos meant her joints were ill-prepared. “Who? Me, or the ship?”

“I would prefer not to answer that,” Barnabas guffawed.

Sighing, Kassandra followed Alexios across the deck. “The real Minotaur was on Messara,” she called, as Alexios fled quickly. “A boy named Ardos camped outside because his father went into the labyrinth and never came out. I was only able to grab the father’s ring for the boy to remember him by."

Alexios stopped to tap his foot before heading below deck. The cogs turning in his mind were evident by his furrowed brow. “...That is a lot of detail to just make up on the spot.”

“And gods know I am no poet or oracle!” Kassandra stepped forward to pat her brother’s shoulder with pride for finally believing her.

However, Alexios intercepted her arm with his own. “Yes, but next, you’ll tell me about the other mythical monsters you personally fought.”

“The Cyclops, the Medusa, and the Sphinx, if you’re really that curious.” Kassandra gave a shit-eating grin. In helping Alexios, she could still have fun.

Alexios threw up his arms and descended below deck.

Laughing, Kassandra followed her brother, as she would anywhere. “Don’t you believe me, little brother?”

“Don’t call me that!” Alexios pouted behind him.

“I can prove it. The Cyclops was on Kythera, but I cannot really explain the… _man_ that helped me find it.” She laughed again at some inside joke unknown to Alexios. Of course, he simply had not been there, but it stung his heart as if Kassandra was hiding something. Everyone always was. “The Sphinx was in Boeotia, but I couldn’t save the poor apprentice Pibos. And with the Medusa in Lesbos, I couldn’t save Bryce and her lover.”

At the end of the hall, Alexios finally turned. Perhaps the shadows were playing tricks on Kassandra, but she thought she saw Alexios’ expression struggling with the very notion of sympathy.

“That seems to be an unfortunate trend in my life,” the _misthios_ murmured. Remained unspoken were her questions, _Have I broken it yet? If not, will you let me?_

Instead, she just crossed her arms and jested, “Also, where are you going, Alexios?”

"Don't c—" The order died on his lips. The name was still as alien to him as his role of the little brother. However, Alexios would be the liar now if he pretended he did not recognize the need for the disassociation.

Alexios glanced around the empty maw of the ship’s dead end and tapped his stick against the wall. “...I really don’t know.”

“Then come.” Kassandra’s eyes sparkled mischievously, almost inhumanly, as she led Alexios back into the light of the sleeping quarters.

Her hammock was the same recycled material as everyone else. With Barnabas’ crew, the threadbare cloth has probably seen more horror than even their magical family.

Kassandra slept with her belongings at her side. After she ensured that no one else was in the cabins but her brother, her shoulders relaxed enough to comfortably open one pack.

When a eerie tangerine glow conquered the room, Alexios raised his arm and grunted, a perfunctory defense.

Raising an eyebrow, Kassandra pointed out, “You’re holding driftwood, not a dagger. You can’t stab your problems, anyway.”

“Rich, coming from you,” Alexios huffed. Still, he moved closer to his sister. At the same time, she opened the leader further to reveal the culprits, four oddly smooth balls with engravings, or something of the sort. He was too entranced by the orange light to jest about Kassandra collecting rocks. “What are they?”

“I don’t rightfully know yet, but they appeared with each defeat of the guardians. I think the artifacts are connected to Leonidas’ spear,” Kassandra speculated. Her mouth twitched, reminiscing bitter-sweetly. “My broken spear.”

Petulant, Alexios pouted. “Don’t use my words against me. Now… I have a broken stick.” He was going to poke Kassandra in the arm with the Lakonian wood, but stopped at the last second, afraid he would poke too hard.

If Kassandra noticed the awkward jerk, she said nothing. Instead, she closed her pack once the illumination became too nauseating and hit it under her other belongings. “We’ll find out soon, since that’s where we’re sailing now, to return them to their rightful place. An old man on some volcanic isles sent me on this quest.” She glanced back at Alexios. “If you can believe that, that is.”

“I can try,” Alexios admitted, swallowing an unpleasant feeling. “But are you really going to let a strange man in some dark halls boss you around?”

Even without the artifacts, the air was sucked out of the ship’s underbelly. Kassandra turned to face Alexios, as slowly as one of the enormous monsters she had faced, none of which compared to the Cult. “Are you?”

The move was well-played, almost too much so. Alexios assumed the ship, the whole world, had tilted on its axis, until he realized it was only him. His vision soon restored, Alexios first saw Kassandra's brows knit in concern as he leaned against the neck hammock for support. Alexios cleared his throat awkwardly.

She had asked the question. She did not immediately need an answer. One step at a time, these things took. Often very, very small steps.

Silence reigned for a few moments. When the air returned and breathed new life into the quarters, Kassandra stepped forward. "Well, little brother, I hope you've learned something about trust."

"Hm?" Now, Alexios regretted leaving his dagger above deck. He tried to scratch at the stick's point neurotically with a fingernail. 

"I showed you these ancient secrets to prove that if I have no reason to lie about strange, mythical encounters," Kassandra expanded, "then the average person has no reason to lie about the small things, correct?"

The Greek man was closer to laughing than ever before. "You really have been spending too much time in Athens."

 _Small steps_ , Kassandra reminded herself. With a toothy smile, she hounded Alexios. "But it's working, is it not?"

The problem was, it was working. Just a little. Alexios would have to reason through on his own time if that was even a problem, as the warm and sickly feelings mangling in his chest gave him opposing reports. To potential kindness, Alexios responded the only way he had learned how. "...I will throw you off of the side of the _Adrestia_."

Unfazed, Kassandra swung a protective arm around her little brother and messed up his hair. "And I will take you with me," she promised. 

**Author's Note:**

> sokrates would abhor kassandra's bastardization of logical reasoning. thankfully i am not sokrates. i am stupid


End file.
